


Disarray

by akire_yta



Series: promptfics - thunderbirds are go [90]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: AU of an AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:27:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8956078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: prelude requested an AU of an AU: poor!minorchords!on-the-run!John and EOS





	

**Author's Note:**

> poor!Tracy's is a round robin currently on the go on tumblr btwn myself, prelude and DrDone, where the brothers are broke as but still trying to save the world
> 
> Minor Chords is my TAG/PacRim AU where John drifts with Eos to save the world (and now has to save themselves). You can find it (also a WIP) [on AO3 here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7233454)
> 
> This is not in either of those verses, and thus is not part of the internal canon for either, but occupies a third point somewhere in between....

_When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die_.

John had heard one of the techs singing that, years before and several Shatterdomes ago, and the phrase just stuck.

Everyone in the program had work-worn hands and that critical, ingrained awareness of using up every last resource.  They were also all brutally aware that they too were resources to be squeezed.

Rich folk didn’t live on the Pacific coast.

It’s been nearly a decade since John last ventured this far from the shore.  He feels out of place, the rarified mountain air too thin maybe, or maybe its just the feel of rock and not sand under his boots that’s putting him off balance.

His clothes are drawing glances, too worn, repaired too often, behind the current fashion for strong colours and crisp, starched lines.  He’ll need a disguise if he keeps climbing higher.

Poor people live on the coast; that’s the world these folk understand, and John exploits the hesitation caused by the disconnect of seeing a poor person in the mountains to duck between the crowds, looking for a way in.

There had to be workers here, people to clean the pristine houses and tend the manicured fountains and gardens.  If he could find them, he’d blend in enough to make his contact.

The kaiju were gone, the Breach sealed, but ten years of fear is enough to drive patterns deep.  Rich people lived high and poor people lived low.  That way, no-one important died when the kaiju attacked.  This far from the sea, they hadn’t quite grasped yet that the poor people now controlled the oceans in a world free of kaiju.

Despite their depleted numbers, the lack of resources, the Shatterdomes were a well-oiled machine.  The failed Wall of Life program had taught them the value of rebelling, and the workers on the failed project were ripe for revolution.

John had brought Eos into the world to help fight kaiju.  Now it seems they were well suited to more nefarious tasks.

“Take the next left in three, two, one…”

John and Eos were military trained.  John, like everyone on his team, knew the desperation of poverty and hunger, of being abandoned.

His friends, his family in the Shatterdome, had sacrificed everything to keep the world safe.  John’s own family had been scattered, the rich controlling the remaining lines of communication, pricing it out of their reach until they couldn’t afford to remain in contact.  But despite the years, John knew he could rely on his brothers.

“I have received the countersignal,” Eos whispered in his ear.  “Proceed to drop point.”

John nodded, not daring to speak, too aware of the surveillance that covered this perfect, fake, world above the snow line.  Eos would scramble his image, but it was best not to linger.  The package, if they delivered what they promised, had parts enough for John to tap into secure phone networks, and codes to mask his hack.  If they were lucky, it might also have more copies of the communiques that were flashing between the mountain cities as they discussed what to do with all those people who failed to die when the kaiju attacked.  John was well-aware that the Shatterdomes were now seen as a liability, a loose end to be mopped up.  But they were trained to fight, and John’s mission was to connect their allies so they could mount a strong resistance.

Finding his brothers was not at odds with completing his mission, may actually help.

The brown-wrapped tube was small, but rattled promisingly when John scooped it up from its nook sheltered by the trees from the cameras.  “Cable car is twelve seconds ahead of schedule.  Can you walk faster without looking guilty, John?” Eos asked.

John grinned, made a show of glancing up at the clock that watched over the square, and picked up his pace.

He’d find his brothers, finish his mission, and help the people of the coast secure what was rightfully theirs.


End file.
